What We Eat

I have heard this question quite a bit over the last two years. I’m usually eating something homemade. The question that always follows is, “what do you eat”. This is hard for me to explain because we’ve never established any solid rules; we just try to do a few basic things. (And when I say we, I mean I’ve dragged Peter along with me. But he doesn’t complain so it can’t be that bad, right?) Anyway, I’ve done my best explaining our eating habits below:

We eat what we have grown and hunted. I have yet to be a very successful gardener, but I try. Peter only hunts once a year but he brings back plenty of meat to last months.

We try to buy local. I shop the farmers market, meat market, and in winter try to choose state grown products. I freeze and can things while they are in season to keep costs down.

The only beverages I buy are local milk, tea, coffee, wine, whiskey, and the occasional adult mixer.

I don’t buy anything I can reasonably make at home. For example, we make our own bread, baked goods, pizza, etc.

Things I need to buy premade need to have fewer than 5 ingredients and I need to know and be able to buy all of them. If I can’t pronounce it or find it at the store I won’t buy it.

When it comes time to buy meat, I only buy about 1-2 small packs of meat to last the month. For example, I might buy a pound of Italian sausages from the local Italian deli but then I will only use about 1 sausage per recipe to flavor dishes rather than to set it as a focal point. The only exception is special occasions, i.e. Thanksgiving, BBQs with friends, etc. In which case we make a special trip to the store. We don’t really keep meat in stock.

This is how we eat at home, but we also have a weakness for going out. Luckily most of the restaurants around our house buy local and don’t serve things that have been pre-frozen. Regardless, we don’t always make the best choices while we are out. I also work in school, which leaves plenty of room for mistakes. And although we make much of our own food, I still use white sugar and flour.

After explaining on all of this, I have decided there is room for improvement. To get things moving, I am going to take the 10 day real food challenge. (I know this is a lot to come from such a simple question.) Of course I wouldn’t want to do this alone, so Peter has been kind enough to say he will join me. To make the challenge even more difficult, we will be beginning Thursday, November 17. Yes, that means we will carry right through Thanksgiving. But not to worry I’ve already started planning. I’m hoping I can learn some new tricks to eliminate the white flour and sugar that are currently used in our kitchen. I’m also hoping I can prove to myself that we can do it over a big eating holiday so we can do it all the time.